PLAYER PROFILE
TIN CUP
TAKES ON JAPAN
IT’S A LONG WAY FROM ARNHEM LAND TO TOKYO AND
THE JAPANESE TOUR, BUT ANTHONY QUAYLE WILL
SOON EMBARK ON THE NEXT LEG OF THIS JOURNEY.
WORDS BY PAUL PRENDERGAST
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK WILSON & GETTY IMAGES
A
NTHONY Quayle grew up in
Gove, a mining town on the
north-east tip of the Northern
Territory. The nearest town was a
nine-hour drive away on a corrugated dirt round.
You needed to snorkel in a four-wheel drive to
get through two rivers..
Nobody in his family played golf, but he used
to ride his bike past the local course on his
way to school. When he wasn’t at the course
he played a six-hole course around the family
home, with baked bean tins used for holes.
When this story emerged during the Australian
Open a few months back, it earned the 23-year-
old, who now lives on Queensland’s Gold Coast,
the nickname ‘Tin Cup’.
Quayle played his way into contention during
the Open at The Australian Golf Club in Sydney,
starting the final round five strokes behind a
man who shared a similar upbringing to him at
the Hills International College near Beaudesert,
Jason Day.
His Open campaign was on track for much of
the front nine holes before a string of late bogies
consigned him to a tie for 19th, ten shots back
of eventual winner Cameron Davis.
Despite his disappointment in the result,
the experience playing his first Australian Open
at end of his rookie season will linger long in ►